Apparatus for cultivating celery with white stalks



- Dec; 27, 1938.

APPARATUS FOR GULTIVATING CELERY WITH WHITE STALKS Original Filed Sept..10, 1936 Era]. I m

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c. M. am 2,141,486 I Patented Dec. 27, 1938 PATENT APPARATUS FORCULTIVATING CELERY WITH WHITE STALKS Charles M. Piglia, Los Angeles,Calif., assignor to Plant Protectors, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., acorporation of Delaware Application September 10, 1936, Serial No.100,061 Renewed May 21, 1938 1 Claim.

This invention relates to the agricultural art and particularly to theart of cultivating celery.

In the cultivation of celery certain varieties which are among the bestfor table use from the 6 standpoint of tenderness and tastiness, maturewith a rather ugly yellowish green color in the stalks. In spite of thesuperior eating qualities of these varieties of celery it is difiicultto market these in competition with other varieties of celery lessdesirable from the eating standpoint but which are a pure white or verylight yellow in color.

It is accordingly an object of my invention to provide a method of andapparatus for cultivating varieties of celery, the stalks of which arenaturaly green, to cause these stalks to be substantially white whenmatured.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing object, as well as furtherobjects and advantages, will be made manifest in the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:7

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one of the celery bleachers of my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail cross sectional View taken on the line 2--2of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the eelery bleacher of myinvention applied to one or more stalks of celery in carrying out themethod of my invention.

The method of my invention consists in shielding stalks of celery fromlight from the time these are approximately one half to three quartersfully developed until the time when these are mature and the celeryready to harvest. At the same time p the stalks are thus shielded theleaves of the celery are allowed to remain in the open exposed to thesunshine. I have found that as a result of this method of cultivatingthose varieties of celery the stalks of which are normally green whenmature these stalks when harvested will be a beautiful creamy white.

The apparatus of my invention and its use in performing the method of myinvention are illustrated in the drawing, this apparatus comprising whatmay become known in the art as a celery 4 bleacher I0. This bleacherincludes a sheet of paper II having a height H of which is preferably invarious sizes and which is adapted to reach from the ground to theleaves of stalks of celery when such stalks have substantially one halfto three quarters of their growth. The length L of the sheet is such asto permit this sheet to be wrapped around a group of several stalks ofcelery and have the opposite ends of this sheet overlap each other.

An end portion I2 of the sheet II is provided with a pair of buttons I4to which are attached strings I5. As shown in Fig. 2 each of the buttonsI4 includes a stiff cardboard washer 20 disposed behind the sheet II, acardboard washer 2| disposed in front of the sheet I I and a rivet 22which extends through these two washers and joins them and the sheet IItogether. The washer 20 is preferably glued with a waterproof glue tothe sheet II. Each of the strings I5 is tied to the rivet of itsrespective button I4 between the washer 2| thereof and the sheet I I.

The sheet I I is preferably waterproofed and may be tinted a blue or agreen so as to particularly exclude light rays of these wave lengths.

In carrying out the method of my invention the sheet I I of the celerybleacher I0 is wrapped around a group 25 of stalks of celery so as toshield the stalks thereof from the direct rays of light and allow theleaves 26 thereof to remain in the open and subject to both direct anddiffused rays of sunlight. After the sheet of paper I I has thus beenwrapped around stalks of celery 25 with the ends of the sheetoverlapping as shown in Fig. 3 the strings I5 are wrapped around thepaper II and the ends of the strings wound about the rivets 22 of thebuttons I4 between the washer 2| and the paper II. The celery bleacherI0 is thus secured in place on the celery stalks 25 so as to carry outthe method of my invention. As the celery stalks 25-grow, it isnecessary for the attendant to occasionally unwind the ends of thestrings I5 from the buttons I4 and after permitting the celery stalks 25to expand somewhat, refasten the strings I5 onto the buttons I4.

As the celery grows there is a tendency for the bleacher I0 to be liftedabove the ground as shown in Fig. 3 so as to expose the lower ends ofthe stalks 25. When this happens it will be necessary for the culturistto slip the bleacher I0 downwardly so that its lower edge issubstantially in contact with the ground. The increase in the extent ofthe foliage 26 as the stalks 25 grow casts a shadow over the upper endsof the stalks so that the downward movement of the bleacher I0 does notsubstantially reduce the shelter given the upper ends of the stalks 25so as to prevent these developing the objectionable green color.

When the stalks of celery 25 are entirely matured and ready for harvestthe strings I5 are released from the buttons I4, the celery bleacher I0is removed and discarded or stored to be used again and the stalks ofcelery 25 are harvested.

celery are not impaired in any way by the bleach- 10 comprising a sheetof flexible material capable of acting as a light filter to filter outchemically potent rays of sunlight, a plurality of filamentary tiebuttons on said sheet, and filamentary tie members secured with saidbuttons to said sheet, said tie members being adapted to extend aboutsaid sheet when the latter. is used to encase one or more celerystalksand tie onsaid butto s so as to securesaid sheet about saidstalks; v

' CHARLES M. PIGLIA.

